


rivers cannot quench

by stationlittle



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-06 20:45:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13419297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stationlittle/pseuds/stationlittle
Summary: Ashley is buying a wedding dress.





	rivers cannot quench

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Anne Bradstreet's poem "To My Dear and Loving Husband"  
> Written for Beej :)

It's not that she hated wearing a dress, it's just that it made her nervous in a way she hadn't been in a while. Which was ridiculous, right? She had faced so many dangers before. More than that: she had won! And this. This was just a dress, wasn't it? 

"It's not just a dress," she heard behind her. 

She turned, surprised. Shepard was sitting behind on the couch the shop made available to its clients, a glass of champagne in hand. 

The asari employee had brought a bottle some time ago, but Ashley had been too anxious to try the dress on to even think about drinking anything.

"Did you read my thoughts?" Ashley asked her. 

Shepard grinned. "No. I just know you well. It's not a simple dress, Ash. It's a wedding dress." 

"Right." She swallowed. "Right, Skipper. A wedding dress."

"And it looks gorgeous on you," Shepard commented. 

She looked back at the mirror, staring at her reflection. She did look gorgeous, didn't she? One might even say drop dead gorgeous. 

She smiled, feeling giddy. Behind her, Shepard laughed, like she had read her thoughts again. 

It felt almost like a dream, Ashley mused. Something she wasn't supposed to have. A future husband, a captain who was her best friend, a crew she loved, a ship that was home. People who never abandoned her. And of course, her family, as her sisters were about to arrive in—

She heard a scream. 

"Oh my god, sis! You're so beautiful!"

Okay, they were here. 

 

And the thing was, he hadn't proposed to her near a lake under a perfect moon, like she had somehow always imagined. 

He hadn't gotten on one knee either, because he couldn't. He was lying in a hospital bed and had been for a while, waiting for the cybernetics he needed, and surgeries to repair the damage to his muscles.

Really, none of it had happened like she thought it would.

Still. He had stared at her like she was the best thing he had ever seen, and that had been magical in itself. 

When he had whispered, "Marry me," she had said yes. Immediately. 

The thought of saying no never occurred to her. And somehow...this entire proposal had been better than her imagination. It was perfect in all its imperfections. 

 

Months separated her from this moment and the present, but she still thought about it every day.

"That dress seriously looks amazing," Sarah said.

It felt surreal to think the wedding would happen two weeks from now. 

Her omni-tool vibrated, indicating she had received a message. It was Kaidan. 

_'James is making me try every suit in the store. Help me.'_

She smiled picturing the scene. 

 _'You got us into that mess, you deal with it.'_  She added a second later: _'Maybe Garrus can stop James?'_

The reply came immediately.  _'Garrus is enjoying my pain too much to stop him.'_

_'What about Joker?'_

_'Are you kidding me? Joker is videotaping the entire thing. All my friends suck.'_

"Who are you talking to?" Sarah said behind her. "Are you for real talking to your future husband while trying on your dress? Sis, come on! We have champagne here!"

"Alright, alright!" she answered.

 _'Gotta go,'_  she quickly sent. _'Love you.'_

_'Love you too. See you at home.'_

 

Another thing: they had a place of their own now. It wasn't a perfect house on a colony world with white picket fences and multiple rooms (in case babies were on the way, Sarah would tell her with a devilish grin).

It was a three-bedroom apartment, located on what was the Citadel's most populated wards. It was quiet. The rent was cheap (for now), and there was a park nearby. Ashley loved it, if only because it was theirs, and while she might dream of something else later, right now it was perfect. It was everything they needed. It was also close to public transit, which meant it was easy for Kaidan to go to the clinic for his appointments. 

 

"So, what do you think?" Sarah asked. 

"I think it's the one," she replied, checking the back one last time. Long and white, it was elegant, yet not too full of trivial details that she always hated seeing on famous wedding dresses. It was simple but gorgeous with a timeless feel to it. 

"I should get out of this dress before I start to sweat in it," she said. 

"Pictures first!" Shepard told her. "I promised some people I would show them." 

"And by some people you mean?"

"The entire crew?" Shepard replied with a smile.

Ashley sighed, though she wasn't really annoyed. 

A photo shooting session followed, which was regularly interrupted by her sisters photobombing her and Shepard laughing so hard Ashley thought she was going to fall. She probably ended up with paparazzi-like pictures that made her look ridiculous, but no point making a fuss about it. 

When it was time to pay, she closed her eyes for a second. It was a lot of credits, but then again, she planned on only getting married once. And the dress was perfect; she wouldn't be able to find another that fit her so well.

Also? She deserved this. She kept telling herself this, as encouragement, right until she was about to push the button to conclude the transaction. Shepard, back from the shop's bathroom, yelled "WAIT!" so loudly she jumped.

She stopped right then. 

"Jesus, Skipper. You scared me. What is it?"

"I thought you knew!" Shepard exclaimed. "We're paying for it."

"Who's we?" she asked. 

"The crew. All of us. And don't protest, okay? A gift is a gift, you have to accept it."

Her heart skipped a beat. 

"You're...Shepard, that dress is not cheap. Are you sure?"

"It's nothing," Shepard said, waving her hand. She looked straight at Ashley and whispered, "I'm LOADED now."

Ashley shook her head. "I wished you would stop doing that." 

"No one can stop me." 

"Oh I know," she replied, amused. 

She pitied the ones who had tried and utterly failed. History was not on their side. 

"Here you go," Shepard said later, giving her a black bag with her dress carefully nestled inside. 

"Thank you," Ashley said. 

Shepard waved her hand again. "Don't mention it."

"No," Ashley insisted. "I mean it. Thank you. From me to all the crew. And you, obviously. It...it means a lot."

"What is family for?" Shepard replied, smiling. 

 

An hour later, Ashley found herself dropping the bag at the foot of her bed. The bedroom's door opened and Kaidan entered, thankfully before she'd taken the dress out of the bag. She wasn't really superstitious, but she wouldn't risk anything before the wedding. She would have to figure how to hide the dress from him. 

He dropped his bag next to hers and immediately went to embrace her, lowering them onto the bed, his arms around her, enveloping her completely. She immediately felt better. 

He started caressing her hair very slowly, which was honestly her favorite thing in the entire world. Made her feel like a purring cat. 

"Are you as exhausted as I am?" he asked her. 

"Yeah."

"The good news is I found the suit."

"I found the dress," she said. 

They stared at each other. 

"So this is really happening," Kaidan said. "We're getting married."

"Are you having doubts, Spectre Alenko?" 

"Not at all, Spectre Williams. Being your husband, it's..."

He stopped, like he was trying to find the right words. She knew he was about to say something sappy, but she didn't care. He said husband. He was going to be her  _husband._

"It would make me truly happy. Like I finally found where I..."

"Where you belong," Ashley finished for him. 

He nodded, smiling. "Yeah. Where I belong."  His hand softly touched her cheek. "Here with you."

Before, her first instinct would have been to mock the gesture and laugh at the words. She wasn't used to someone liking her this intensely and with such consistency. What she had dreamed about, she thought could only be found in poems. Not in a real human being. She had told herself this for so long that it was hard to break that mentality. It was hard to truly believe that someone would not hurt her. But Kaidan would not, not never. She was certain of this. She trusted him. Her lover, her best friend, the person she would always reach for in the darkness. 

"Hey, you okay?" he asked her. 

The concern in his voice was touching, but not necessary. Yes, she was okay. More than okay.

"I'm happy," she said. "I'm going to be your wife." 


End file.
